1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to releasable fasteners. More particularly, the present invention relates to releasable fasteners for releasably fastening together a plurality of pieces of paper.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of fasteners have been developed in the prior art to fasten together pieces of material such as paper or cloth. Some of those fasteners include two separate pieces of material which are fastened together. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,510,263 to Stein discloses a binder file tape which includes a support strip 21 coated with an adhesive 22 for attachment to a folder 17, and a tab strip 23 which is also coated with an adhesive 25 on one side for attachment to the support strip 21, and which is cut into mounting tabs 24 which are each adherable to a leaf 29 to mount a plurality of leaves in the folder 17.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 2,931,747 to Dexter discloses a fabric fastener 1 which includes two strips 2, 3 of material which each have a coating 4, 5, respectively, of adhesive thereon so that the strips 2, 3 may adhere to each other and to two pieces of fabric to fasten together the pieces of fabric. Unfortunately, fasteners which include two separate pieces of material have the disadvantage that they are relatively difficult and costly to manufacture, and are thus relatively expensive.
Another type of fastener for sheet material has been developed which includes only a single sheet of adhesive material U.S. Pat. No. 2,547,487 to Penney discloses an adhesive tab which includes a material engaging member 10 having an adhesive coating Il fixed on only one side thereof to which is removably affixed a pair of covers 12, 13. When a user desires to fasten two sheets 18, 19 together, he or she must remove the covers from the coating 11, and press the tab on the sheets 18, 19. A disadvantage of this type of fastener, however, is that the need to remove a pair of covers from an adhesive coating makes the fastener relatively time consuming and bothersome to use.
Other fasteners have been developed in the prior art which include only a single piece of material and which are free of adhesive covers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,292,176 to Tate discloses a hinge mount which is made of a strip of material 10 which has a crease line 12 along its longitudinal median, an adhesive on one side thereof, and transverse score lines 20 thereacross. The strip 10 is severed along a transverse score line 20 to form a desired length, and is then folded along the crease line 12. The strip 10 is then fastened to a card along the edge of the card, and is fastened to a page of an album to secure the card in the album.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,250,016 to Richards discloses a leaf binder which is in the form of a strip 2 which has an adhesive on one side thereof. The strip 2 includes a plurality of shanks 15 which are bendable upwardly from the strip 2. In use, the strip 2 is attached to a cover element C, and the shanks 15 are attached to both leaves I', I" of a sheet I. The sheet I is thereby fastened into the cover C.
U.S. Pat. No. 952,642 to Robertson discloses a loose leaf binding hinge made of a strip A of material which has an adhesive on an underside thereof and which has two sets of tabs 10, 11 cut and folded outwardly therefrom. In use, the strip A is adhered to a cover C, and the tabs 10, 11 are adhered to a loose leaf B to fasten the loose leaf B to the cover C.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 341,005 to Heysinger discloses a binding strip A for papers. The strip A includes an adhesive on one side C thereof, a solid portion a for attachment to the lower surface of a bottom sheet, and a plurality of flaps B for attachment to upper surfaces of a plurality of upper sheets. The bottom sheet and the upper sheets are thereby all bound together.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,291,382 to Bohan discloses a binding clip for sheet music, which includes two end portions 10, 10 having an adhesive on one side thereof, and a connecting neck portion 11 having an adhesive on an opposite side thereof. In use, the clip is folded along a line 18, and the end portions 10, 10 are adhered to either side of a central sheet 17. The clip is then cut into two pieces along line 18, and the resulting separate neck portions 11, 11 are adhered to outer faces of cover sheets 15 to attach the central leaf 17 to the cover sheets 15.
Each of the above-described single piece fasteners have several disadvantages. For example, each of these fasteners must be folded over around an edge of at least one sheet to properly fasten two or more sheets together. These fasteners thus require relatively exact placement on a sheet to ensure that two sheets align correctly when they are fastened. As a result, they are relatively time-consuming to use due to their need to be folded and exactly placed. Also, they are limited to being only able to fasten sheets at the sheets edges. Further, in the case of the fasteners which fasten more than two sheets together, such as disclosed in the Richards and Heysinger patents, the fasteners adhere to one side only of each sheet, and thus form relatively unstable attachments to each of the sheets.